The present invention relates to a centrifugal drier comprising a rotary cylindrical screening basket and operated cyclically in successive, repetitive cycles in the course of which a product to be dried is charged into the basket under control of a device which interrupts the feeding of the product into the basket when the layer of the product on the cylindrical wall of the rotating basket has reached a predetermined thickness, the product is then partially dried initially as the basket rotates and particulate solid material contained in the product is retained on the basket wall while liquid is centrifugally separated from the product, the partially dried product is washed with a washing liquid projected by an array of orifices or atomizing nozzles disposed in the interior of the basket, and the washed product is finally completely dried, discharged from the basket and removed. Such centrifugal driers have been used in the sugar industry for separating sugar crystals (the particulate solid material) from massecuite (product to be dried).
Each operating cycle of such centrifugal driers is defined by a certain number of parameters, such as acceleration and deceleration of the basket rotation, as well as timing, etc. At the present time, each operating parameter is entered separately into the computer which automatically operates the drier, either by the manufacturer or by the operator, and these parameters are then adjusted empirically on the basis of the operating experience.
If the drier operates with a constant charge, its cyclic rythm depends on the flowrate of the product to be dried.
In present drying installations, the duration of each drying cycle is predetermined and constant, and the operation of the installation is adapted to the flowrate while taking into account the time interval between the end of one operating cycle and the beginning of the following cycle.